C10 HD Streamlines Production While Improving Quality

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT  The Kuwait Broadcast Service (KBS), a major radio broadcasting and performance facility operated by the Ministry of Information (MOI) for the government of Kuwait, has recently upgraded four studios with Solid State Logic C10 HD Compact Broadcast Consoles. MOI/KBS encompasses nine radio stations, five drama studios, four editing suites, three live music/rehearsal spaces and one large concert hall. The C10 HD consoles are part of a general move into digital production systems for the facility and are used for radio production, capturing drama presentations and editing.

KBS is in the process of redesigning its studios with newer digital technology and we wanted to have the latest and best equipment to be ready for HD production and 5.1 transmission, says Eng. Hameed Khajah, engineering director of OB and studios departments at MOI/KBS. The C10 gives us the power to work more efficiently now and is ready to take us into the future with surround production. The C10 fits in perfectly with our move into all digital systems by giving us a powerful platform with robust feature set in a small form factor that is perfect for our re-designed studio control rooms.

Two of the C10 consoles, each with a 24-fader frame addressing 64 DSP channels, are installed in the On-Air First Radio Channel studio and On-Air Super Station Studio to handle live-to-air radio programming for 5 different Radio Kuwait stations. Programming includes This is Kuwait, a daily live interview, news and information show; dedicated talk and news shows; programs featuring English and European music, programs focused on Kuwaiti youth supporting education and exposure to Kuwaiti heritage, as well as religious programming. The edit and drama studio consoles have 16 Faders addressing 64-channels of DSP. All consoles feature Alpha-Link and 8-RMP units. The edit and production studios also have MadiXtreme 64 I/O for DAW use.

The C10 consoles have changed the way we approach our production workflow for our on-air, drama and ProTools® and Nuendo editing studios, continues Eng. Khajah. For example, the C10 gives us the power to have the settings for each program stored for instant recall. This really helps our workflow as it saves setup time. We also store the EQ and dynamics settings for the main talent, so we can now maximize the amount of time we spend optimizing the audio quality of the invited guests. User-defined presets combined with the Dialogue Automix feature that automates faders for fast-paced panel programs makes this type of production easy to accomplish. In every way, the C10 has made our production experience better.

By using four C10 consoles supporting critical production areas, moving from studio to studio is easy on the engineering staff with the added bonus of being able to move Presets between consoles. In this way, work can be efficiently continued or completed in any C10 control room without the need to reconvene settings or appropriate patching for outboard gear.

The C10 console establishes an effective environment for sound engineering, states Eng. Khajah. Our engineers enjoy being more creative by having the time to craft sound. The C10 gives us a grand synergy because it is easy to interact with the console to get superior production results, while the console gives back excellent sound quality and faster workflow. The C10 also fits in with our green initiatives, a part of our governments mandate, as the consoles are completely self-contained, generate little heat and have low current draw. The C10 lets us do things we could not do in the past.